An American Diplomat in Franco Spain by Michael Aaron Rockland

Author:Michael Aaron Rockland [Rockland, Michael Aaron]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Political, Personal Memoirs, Biography & Autobiography, Cultural Heritage, Dr. Zhivago, Franco, Martin Luther King, Madrid, Francisco Franco, Michael Aaron Rockland, Edward Kennedy, Palomares, Spanish cusine, hydrogen bombs, Pat Lawford Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Spain, Spainish culture
ISBN: 9781601823045
Publisher: Hansen Publishing Group
Published: 2012-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

Dr. Zhivago: Shooting a Movie in Spain

One march morning in 1965 my embassy phone rang. “Mr. Rockland? This is John Palmer with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. We’re making Dr. Zhivago here in Madrid. Perhaps you were aware of that.”

I was not.

“Anyway,” Palmer continued, “I wonder if you could help us: we’re looking for an American boy—about four and a half. Do you know one?”

At first I thought Palmer was joking. Then I said, “Know one? I have one.”

“You have a son who is about four and a half?”

“Four and a half next week.”

“Splendid,” Palmer said. “I wonder if I might send a car for him tomorrow. I’d like David to have a look at him.”

I didn’t know who David was but I arranged to take the day off from my embassy duties and phoned Jeffrey’s nursery school to tell them he would not be there the next day.

At 9 in the morning a chauffeured black Humber pulled up on our street in Madrid and Jeffrey, his mother, and I piled into the back. The automobile headed out the Avenida de America. Half way to Barajas Airport a nondescript brick building hung over the freeway. I had passed under it many times, never knowing it was a film studio.

We were ushered into a large room, instantly discovering to our shock and dismay that there were some thirty couples with their little boys waiting, their chairs in a line along one wall. I had never seen any of these people before. Who would have thought there could be so many Americans in Madrid with four and a half year-old boys?

We had assumed MGM wanted Jeffrey himself for a single, quick shot, but in this room was a veritable army of competition. We thought of leaving but decided to wait a while and see what would happen.

So, we waited. And waited. My watch said 10:30. Then 11:00. If we and the other parents were restless, one can imagine how restless the little boys were. Jeffrey kept saying, “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do here.”

Prowling about the room, one of the boys discovered a large basket of chocolates on a table at the far end of the room. No one said the candy was for their consumption, but no one said it wasn’t. Soon all the boys were gathered around the basket, quite peaceably dividing up the stash.

It was noon. Jeffrey’s mother and I decided that if nothing happened by 12:30 we would leave.

At precisely 12:30, just as we were preparing to leave, the door opened and in came the great man himself. David was David Lean, the legendary film director, fresh from having made what is still my favorite film of all time, Lawrence of Arabia, partially shot in Spain (Seville is Damascus), and, before that, another great favorite of mine, The Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean was followed into the room by a group of staff members, including Freddie Young, his longtime, Oscar-winning cinematographer.

While the others leaned against the far wall,

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